Becoming the highest-ranked recruit to go to a prestigious college can be a daunting thought to many, and getting there can be even more of a struggle. However, senior Kylie Robinson has done just that in her volleyball career. Recently, Robinson ranked eighth out of a selective list of 100 volleyball athletes in the entire country; she is officially the highest-ranked recruit to ever attend the University of Oregon in the school’s history.
The ranking that Robinson received was not just some number on a list of volleyball players; she was being judged by multiple college volleyball coaches and critics around the country. The board of coaches had a list of the top 225 girl volleyball athletes in the country, with disregard to their positions. The top 100 athletes are ranked and placed, and the rest of the 225 are mentioned in the list but not actually placed. After the rankings are set, they are revealed in a volleyball specific magazine called Prep Volleyball, where subscribed members can see the year’s national volleyball high school rankings. One may consider this to be a very big accomplishment for a high school student, but Robinson has a different take on it.
Robinson started playing volleyball when she was very young. She started with city league volleyball and was coached by her father, who was also a very athletic person. Over time, Robinson began to improve, and it started to show in her performance. After city league volleyball began to grow out of Robinson, she decided to turn to club volleyball. She credits the success of her team with their speed. Since Robinson is a track athlete as well, she was able to implement her sprinting techniques and ethics into her performance in volleyball. These qualities could be considered one of the many factors that got her to the ranking she is at now.
“I didn’t really think about it because I’m not really much of a boaster,” Robinson said. “But when I started getting recruited, I was super excited.”
Even though Robinson is placed within the top 10 group in the entire country, she still does not let that get ahead of her. She continues to train to become a better volleyball athlete and still has a lot more to come in the next four years at the University of Oregon.